Periapt

It is an oversized owl charm, silver on a silver chain. The eyes are set with flints, and a fil de fer runs through the silver links of the chain, forming a silken iron thread.

The wearer of the periapt gets +4 Wisdom as long as they wear it.

 Wisdom, contributing to hindsight, is first heard in an idea that most feel when they put the periapt on. I probably shouldn't have done that.

Removing the periapt ends its magical effect. That is, the doffing character loses 4 wisdom. They become duller, less insightful, less virtuous, less clear-headed. This is not a fate worse than death, but it is something that many would trade all their worldly possessions to avoid.

The average chansel finds the periapt an unwelcome necessity, once she has tried it on. She shirks curses and magical spells more easily, finds wells of patience and potential that she would have passed by without the periapt, and prospers all the more in many enterprises. But though the mind is broader, it has no peace. Not as long as she wanders mazes to chase coins. Adventure, wisdom shows, is misadventure when you can be doing almost anything else. The person who made these friends and chose these goals and accepted these compromises of living is betrayed by the person who now thinks better of them. The chancer's guardian angel, urging him to drink strange fluids in strange pools, to live his life like he stole it, is joined by the owl on the other shoulder. Is that a worthy risk? Do you want to be dramatic or do you want to do right?

We presume this was not crafted into a curse. The wise woman and the royal advisor have worn the periapt and suffered little for it. Already half-wise, they ordered their lives carefully, and with enhanced insight found nothing they valued needed to be broken from. The blackguard and the twisted have worn the periapt and cut short their evils, all the more joyful for doing so. But no one who knows what it is dons the periapt thoughtlessly, if they know what's good for them.

And if they don't, then they will.